Concordia Lutheran Church
Pentecost 14, August 29, 2010
Presence Provides Ministry
Hebrews 13:1-17
† IN JESUS NAME †
As you contemplate that God’s grace, that loving mercy and peace that heals you, poured out for you as the blood of Christ, may you grasp His unchanging nature that helps you live and love. AMEN!
Commissioned!
The pressure is on you, as you look at the task you have been given. Not just any task, but one that calls you to risk so much of who you are, to go beyond yourself as a masterpiece will be created that will result in people being in awe.
The task will test your faith, your patience, and your endurance. Setbacks will seem devastating, yet may provide just the right re-focus that will turn the work into a masterpiece. Some may question why you bother, given whom you are, and what you have accomplished, and where you have failed in the past. You will risk everything. Everything you are, and everything you have, to accomplish this, and you may see yourself fail the standard, even if others shout acclamations and adore your work.
What encourages you is that you know others have failed in the past, and their works still testify to genius. Einstein who would fail basic classes, yet his work still is leaves people in awe, before they can work with it. Philosophers like Pascal and Roger Bacon and CS Lewis, musicians Beethoven, Mozart, and scientist-artists like Newton, DaVinci; all had their failures, and yet their work still inspires awe.
In the movie, the Princess Bride, there is a classic line. When questioned about his intelligence, one of the characters asks Wesley the hero, “Have you heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?” Wesley replies, “Yes.” The character replies, “Morons!” Now while I will say that Beethoven, Mozart, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Leonardo Da Vinci were not morons, the masterpieces they accomplished are not comparable to the task you have been given, nor will their creations measure up to what Concordia has been challenged with, the commission seen in our reading
The masterpiece of your lives, and of our lives together as a community will inspire awe in generations to come, even though the task seems beyond our combined, completely focused abilities.
Don’t let that concern you… for like the artists of times gone by, we have a patron,… who will insure our success, by taking care of everything that would prevent us from seeing the masterpiece of our lives..
The Work and His Cost…
When a great musical piece is commissioned, or an artist like Mark Jennings is commissioned for painting, there is scope to the work. Mozart’s Requiem was one such commissioning, with the work being done in honor of the sponsor’s wife. Mark may be commissioned to paint a mural, or a painting.
The commissioning of such a masterpiece is seen in our reading from Hebrews this morning. “Let brotherly love continue, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers”. The interesting thing is that brotherly love, and hospitality are both compound words sharing the same base – the word philos – for love and caring. Philadelphia – the love of brothers, and Philozenos – the love and care of the stranger. There is our commission, of which the Great Commission – to make both disciples, is but a subset.
Such love of brother or stranger would see us visiting those we know in prison. Such love would see us reaching out to those who are mistreated. It would show us valuing both family and marriage and the purity of each, and it would see us love and care for money far less than we love and care for each other, as verses 3-5 tells us
The challenge to the Masterpiece -
If our work, if the masterpiece of our lives, that will leave people in awe is defined by our ability to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, and those who are strangers, the work may seem a bit shaky at times. Heck there are times were it seems to us to be doomed to failure.
Last week, as we talked about the presence of God providing stability, we began to see that we hear such passages as law – the don’t touch, don’t speak, no flash photography types of commands we hear in a museum like the Getty. Reading these words can, if heard as law, become condemning, and we might be convinced that we shall fail. We hear “let brotherly love continue (said harshly)“ we know all too well that it might not need to continue as much as it needs to begin all over again. We remember our failure to love, and that word “continue” brings back times that we did not. Or we hear about being hospitable to those not like us, and we think of the people we passed by who were in need, that we were too busy to help.
We even hear John’s epistle echo in the background, If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? (1 John 4:20 (MSG))
The Law can be brutal at times, and the cost of failure, of disobedience is high. Even worse, the distractions and fears caused by the law often paralyze us, stopping us from risking, from reaching out in love. I failed last time, we think, will we just fail again? Can God really use a wretch like me? How can I love them? How can I reach out and risk my… (long pause)
How can we, in the midst of this world, in the midst of a world so screwed up, so confused, so evil; how can we love in the way we are told to continue to love and care? How can we do it, considering our own nature?
The Lord is My Helper
I mentioned before, that like a great artist or musician we have a patron. In history, a patron of the arts had one or more artists that they supported. Not just to commission a painting or a musical composition, but the entire career. They believed in the artist’s talent, the musician’s ability that they would give them the freedom to focus entirely on their craft. They would pay for their lodging, their supplies, their food, even their education and their children’s as well. All expenses would be covered, leaving the artist free to concentrate on their craft!
When the writer of Hebrews describes the Lord, the unchanging Lord as His Helper, he is using an ancient word for patron. Significantly, this promise of God’s patronage is preceded by a promise, “I will never leave you, or forsake you.” Which is why we can confidently say that He is our Helper, our Patron.
The cost of us reaching out in love, and in caring for our brothers and sisters, and for the strange and stranger is completely covered. The cost of clearing up our past failures is covered by our Patron as well, as we turn those burdens over to Him. The challenge then becomes less dealing with our fears and failures, but relaxing and focusing on what He has called use too, confident that He has taken the rest.
That’s why the author of Hebrews goes back to the Old Covenant, to help us grasp onto the incredible truth of God’s patronage – Christ’s incredible actions, where he took upon himself all of our sins, all the of the price for that sin. You see, back then, sin, whether against God, or against mankind, required a price to be paid. Part of that process was to leave the community of faith, until the terms were met, they were sent out of the camp. Unable to take part in the blessing of being among the people of God, a sinner would be “outside the camp”, cut off from friends and family, cut off from love and care, cut off from even the strangers welcomed into the camp.
Yet, our Patron, our helper, even took on that part of our obligation, even that part of our debt. He went outside the camp – He bled that our sins would be paid for, with a price no one could argue wasn’t enough. Not the blood of bulls or goats, but the very blood of Jesus, our benefactor, our patron.
No wonder we do not have to fear, if we can only realize that is the promise of our patron, to remove every sin, to take every part of the curse levied against our failures. He did this according to verse 12, to sanctify us, to accomplish this through the shedding of His blood!
Strengthened by Grace!!!
In light of His work, as we look out to Him, as we acknowledge that work, and the work done in His name, as we realize that we joined him, outside the camp, sharing in His death in our baptism, we being to realize the extent of His patronage, of the incredible blessing to know He has promised He will never abandon us, that His care extends to eternity, we can look to His work, to doing good, to sharing what we have – which is another way of returning to where we started. Loving our brothers and sisters in Christ and loving the strangers in our midst.
When the author o Hebrews talks about it is good for our heart to be strengthened by grace, it is such a message as this that does it- to remember that God is our patron. The concept of strengthen is not just physical or spiritual, but the confidence in the faithfulness that is our patron. Everything that could stop our lives from being the artwork He has commissioned has been removed. As we realize this, as we realize we join Him, outside of the camp – as we acknowledge His work, His love, we then become that masterpiece – His masterpiece, His work.
And that work praises His Name; it worships Him, as it offers a sacrifice that pleases Him. A sacrifice which is defined as living in His presence; being His ministers to each other, and to a world that needs to become disciples.
It is there, in His presence that we know His unsurpassing peace, the peace of God which guards our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. AMEN?
